A frenetic, rhythmic contemporary string piece. Sustained synth breaks into fast, rhythmic, percussive, staccato strings above a low pitched drone, eventually ending with an abrupt stop. Intense, moody, intellectual and dangerous, suitable for an arthouse version of Jason Bourne, a slick automobile advert or a psychological thriller.
Tag Archives: Surprise
Adventures In Flying
The bombastic blast of a military marching band. Brash horn blasts and pounding drums move to playful percussive sound effects, before rumbling timpani, ascending horn lines and rat-a-tat snare take us to the victorious high note. Bold, stirring and recklessly patriotic. Suitable for retro army spoofs, light-hearted battle sequences and TV adverts featuring a battle against germs and stubborn stains.
AP Comedy Live 60 secs
Amazing orchestral production in a zany comedy farce. It’s a full on circus of errors, the feeling of a scene where everything is happening and anything can happen. Short and sweet, with a pause for effect before a blasting end. Full live orchestra. Suitable for rich comedy moments, classic cartoon and fun adverts.
The Jester
Wistful solo piano. Dramatic, comedic chordal piano descent before Amélie-style European piano. Lolloping, waltz section, turns melancholy with low, stormy piano chords. Rumbling bass clef notes before the sun comes out with a bright tinkling segment, leading to a romantic waltzing around the keys. Indecisive, dramatic, tender yet troubled, would suit a European film set in on rainy Paris street, the character’s tumultuous lives at odds with their quaint surroundings.
Horizon Venture Theme
Varied and cascading piano and live string section swirl into a vortex of questions and answers, unifying in a positive crescendo around 1:00, then launching into a series of dynamic sections, before a serene unified ending. Sophisticated and masterfully arranged – I’d imagine Pina Bausch choreographing something to this.
Captain Marzipan
Balkan-style instrumental. Sustained string note builds anticipation, piano motif and drums enters underneath, excitement builds. Strings become louder and earthier in tone. Balkan-style melody enters on choppy violins with double bass drums and piano accompaniment. Grows with frenetic energy, soaring, squeaking violins, melodies intersecting. Dramatic change of tone: complete slow down with drunk double bass and woozy violin swaying drowsily between notes. Shrill piano joins adding jazzy flourishes, all build back to previous upbeat, ramshackle melody. Dramatic, surprising, reckless and intriguing, suitable for a rollicking TV advert or Film/TV/Doc scene, or a strange party scene, where our character is disorientated and disconcerted by the madness happening all around, dropped unexpectedly into a quirky unknown world.
How’s God? She’s Black
The title is taken from this piece of graffiti on the Berlin Wall. Piano and classic guitar led, with gamelan, and a string section. Tender, hopeful and positive with hypnotic piano riffs revolving in the background. A pause leads to a frenetic middle section which bursts into a sudden epic string section, similarly disappearing to leave a tender vulnerable ending. Nods to Steve Reich, The Penguin Cafe Orchestra and The Books.
Threshold_Entrancending_Incantascence
Sparse plucked Cello, calm and slightly wry, anticipating something, a note of unease. Then out of nowhere urgent and plaintive bowed cello and violin. Rhythmic at first then suspending itself with long drawn out notes. At 4:14 there is a unified statement, uneasy and dissonant. It feels like someone is valiantly struggling to pull themselves up but can’t do it. They try harder and more desperately but the forlornness of the situation overtakes them, they pause, then after a last effort they fall to their doom. If you were ever narrating an Edgar Allen Poe story, this would be the soundtrack to it.
Atonement Pass
Dissonant and cloudy, a crying lament of strings that successfully combines early classical 1900s influences with modern day film scoring. It has four definite sections that alternate relaxation with excitement. It will suit period dramas with complex characterisations but also possibly otherworldly and supernatural settings. Atonement. Downton Abbey if it had more balls.
Sky High
Atmospheric and contemplative, with a 16 bit feeling that reminds of video games from the eighties/early nineties. A hypnotic arpeggiated synth and digital flutes and bells create a sense of lightness and airiness. Zelda and Mario can finally meet up and glide azure skies with cotton candy clouds.